The most expensive meal
 

What is the most expensive restaurant (per person) you have ever been to and where? Exclude cost of wine.

Per Se

NYC Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

Twice - once business, one pleasure.

Worth it both time - but not something to do often.

It's a burger diner joint at the Palo Alto shopping mall south of San Francisco. It was over $200 for one deluxe burger and a Dom Perignon including tax. It's sort of their value meal. We shared the burger & the champagne to make it more affordable.

£280 for LUNCH at Jules Verne in Paris... enjoyed it, wouldnt repeat it though.

San Domenico, Isola, Italy.

Chanterelle, NYC

Lutece, NYC

Gaddis, Hong Kong

Le Bec Fin, Philadelphia

Masa, San Francisco

Gordon Ramsay, London

Connaught Hotel, London

Ivy, London

Taillevent, Paris

Hotel Crillon, Paris

There have been many, many more, but I just can't think right now. It all just a blur.

I think my most expensive meal was at Le Bec Fin--2 grand for 3 people.


Thingorjus

Excluding wine makes the prices quite reasonable. With aperitif, wine, water, digestif and coffee added - my bills in a medium/high priced restaurant are always at least double the food - in a splurgey place, I can triple.

So, a 200 euro menu decouverte - which may not be bad value at all, can turn into 400 or 500 very easily.

My most expensive meals have been in the Jules Verne, and Comme Chez Soi in Brussels........I don't even want to think about the price.

A little Italian place on the upper east side of NYC called Il Postano. No prices on the menu, but for about six of us it came to over $2000. I was on an expense account so I really enjoyed it!

I've never been anywhere exotically expensive. I mean I've eaten in many nice restaurants, but none that would be noteworthy on this kind of thread. They simply do not interest me.

The Auberge de Eriden On Lac Annecy. Over $2oo for lunch but it was worth it. An amazing experience and it was for a very special celebration.

I'm wit youse Suze!

The Ritz Carlton, Buckhead, Atlanta, our 10th anniversary, seven years ago. I think it cost about $250. I remember the service more than the food. We wouldn't do it again, but I'm glad we did it then.

Brunch at the Sheraton Palace in San Francisco - $98 per person - and all I had were some scrambled eggs...didn't know the price before the check arrived or I would have scarfed down the entire buffet!

Why answer if you are not interested.
jsims asked a question for answers not comments.

Champagne breakfast with candelabra on the Maasai Mara, Kenya, after a sunrise balloon ride across the veldt, and a set-down by a pool of hippos. Cost: $800 for two (which included the balloon ride, of course).

Le Bec Fin also. Once on expense account. Once on in-law account. Delicious and memorable both times.

La Especial in Tijuana, Mexico.

4,000 pesos!

Le Puit Saint Jaques in Pujaudran. At the time one star, but now has 2. £400 for 4 for lunch. Best meal I've ever eaten out.

A 9-course menu with matching wines at Quinones (Bacchanalia) in Atlanta was 233$ per person. The best meal we had so far in the USA.

At Victor’s Gourmet-Restaurant Schloss Berg in Perl-Nennig (Obermosel) we paid 125€ per person for a 24-course menu without wines. With rather reasonable wines, we ended at 188€ per person. Not bad for a 3-star experience.

I wrote about the menu here:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35130513
It is worth reading it, it is mouth-watering.

Last weekend, we paid 129€ per person excl. wines for a 19-course menu of molecular cuisine at Maremoto in Berlin.

Finally, I must say, gourmet cuisine is still less expensive in most European countries than in USA (a burger for 200$ - LOL).

Paris and the Cote d'Azur may be overpriced, but at least in Germany, Belgium, Austria and especially in Spain (!) you can get top-notch cuisine at reasonable rates.

I forgot Tetsuya in Sydney 12 course lunch about $550... nice though but again i wouldnt do it again (way too much food at lunchtime and all within 14 hours of landing in Australia!!!)

Gordon Ramsay at Royal Hospital Road in London & Martin Wishart in Edinburgh (my local :-) ) - both c.£300 for 2 including wine (I wouldn't have a clue how to split the cost of food & drinks). This was having the full works, champagne to start, dessert wine, etc.

Chanterelle in NYC was briefly my most expensive, until my credit card company reimbursed the difference for the restaurant's "misreading" of a '1' as a '7' on the credit card slip :-)